Thanksgiving in paris

So, had the first International Thanksgiving at my new apart. This International Thanksgiving is now a parisian tradition. It started back in the days when my american friend Karen was here, and eventually the italians, irish, english and even the french got used to it and kept on coming back for the turkey, tha mashed potatoes and the pies. In the past I always have had to rely on the generosity of an old friend with a nice apartment with a big oven, so this was the first time out on my own. I think it turned out really well, a lot of friends came, some of them with their kids, which was a lot of fun, and the main thing is that the turkey was excellent ! (modestly) I was worried because it was much larger than I had expected. I had ordered it at the butcher's, I had asked for a 7 kilo (14 pounds) one... I arrive on sat morning and the two butchers, who are two sweet boys, brothers, who took over recently from their father, handed me a 10 kilo bird ! With a long explanation on how their order in turn had resulted in two small turkeys that they had to send back etc etc. Took the baby home and tried it out for fit in the oven....just barely !
And now from our non-sponsor a short advertising break: SMEG ovens are great ! they will cook a huge turkey in three hours and it's superjuicy and tasty, thanks to the ventilation option the heat is uniformly partitioned in the oven without burning the big bird ! (my old friend's apart. also had a SMEG oven)
Other delicacies on the menu included the sweet potato peanut stew from The Joy of Cooking (another non-sponsor that deserves an ad, or at least a link). It's excellent, don't be afrfaid of all the spicy things it asks for, by the end it's not nearly as hot as you'd imagine, but just enough. And then of course we had greens sautéd in garlic and peperoncino (blettes they are called in french I'll put in a photo bc I don't know the name in english)

the awsome home made italian mashed potatoes by rossella, wild rice, stuffing... we also had two stuffed pumpkins by kathleen, fantastic, and then apple pie, sweet potato pie and pumpkin muffins by yours truly and lots of other cakes !
Of course in the course of all the preparations I forgot to charge my digital camera, so I didn't take any photos, but maybe some of my friends did...